Recently freed "third-strikers" soon will be able to get $1,000 a month to help pay their rent for a year from Santa Clara County, the only jurisdiction in California to offer such assistance.

The idea is to help the former lifers sentenced under the state's Three Strikes Law get back on their feet after spending a decade or longer in prison.

"This isn't about 'warm and fuzzy,' " said Supervisor Joe Simitian, chairman of the public safety committee. "This is a hardhearted calculation about what will keep the public safe ... and cost less than prison."

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the assistance.

The $12,000 a year is a fifth of the $60,032 annual expense of state prison.

Starting Jan. 1, the subsidy is expected to assist about 36 of the more than 70 third-strikers who were released in Santa Clara County, many with just the clothes on their backs and $200 in "gate money."

The county still is working out the criteria for eligibility, but the former lifers likely will have to work at least part-time to qualify. They can receive the benefit for only up to one year, and the rent will be paid directly to the landlord.

More than 1,000 inmates have been released statewide so far since last November, when voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36 to soften the Three Strike Law.

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The new law, aimed primarily at prohibiting judges from imposing a life sentence on most repeat offenders who commit minor crimes, also includes a provision for the possible early release of about 3,000 inmates who were sentenced to life in prison for nonviolent, relatively minor crimes such as stealing a credit card.

Third-strikers are freed only after a judge determines that they are no longer an "unreasonable risk" to public safety.

But the proposition, sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Stanford Law School's Three Strikes Project, didn't provide any post-release services for the freed lifers.

Most are not eligible for parole and will not get any help to adjust to life on the outside, such as access to employment opportunities, vocational training and drug rehabilitation. In contrast, parolees and hundreds of people under county supervision typically get about $6,000 or more worth of services.

Counties have tried to fill the gap by steering third-strikers toward homeless shelters, residential substance abuse centers and housing run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. But those are typically short-term. Many of the former lifers are older, in poor health and have few family ties.

"Research has always shown that housing is the linchpin for re-entry success," said Joan Petersilia, a Stanford law school professor and expert on criminal justice. "Without housing ... sobriety and employment don't happen. This is a critically important project, and Santa Clara deserves a lot of credit for undertaking it."

Nine months ago, former drug dealer and model prisoner Martin Stagi was freed after serving almost 16 years of a 26-years-to-life sentence. Now, he's staying in a homeless shelter, working six days a week cleaning parking lots and taking classes at San Jose City College at night to brush up on his skills as an electrician.

But his time at the shelter runs out in January, and he plans to apply for the county rent subsidy.